Monday, February 26, 2007

The secret why other Asian neighbors are economically ahead of the Philippines is no secret at all. They have been substantiating to the fullest extent possible what Jose Rizal, the nation’s chief hero, was precisely saying to fellow-Filipinos more than a hundred years ago: “Wake up! Embrace science! Utilize the scientific way of thinking! Start to emulate the freethinkers! Knowledge is the heritage of mankind, but only the courageous inherit it! We can only serve our country by telling the naked truth. However bitter it may be!” Indeed, in this center of Catholicism in Asia, we would rather have more faith in the power of prayer and theology than seek the power of knowledge, science, and technology. Poch Suzara

If Rizal had retracted from his attacks against the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church, and if, according to his Catholic biographer Leon M. Guerrero, Rizal had gone to confession four times, heard mass in his death-cell, and received holy communion before he was executed, then Rizal should be branded a traitor to all freedom fighters. He deserved not to be respected or admired as a hero. He should, instead, be canonized a saint. But then again, if Rizal had retracted, why then should the church feel dedicated to get Rizal’s true character expunged out of the Filipino psyche? The truth of the matter was that the Church did everything possible to counteract Rizal’s honest-to-goodness scientific temper of mind. Indeed, in his Noli and Fili, Rizal exposed the Philippine damaged culture caused by organized superstition otherwise popularly known as Christianity. Thus, the story of his retraction was nothing more than a theological concoction to sanitize, if not to neutralize considerably the volume of Rizal’s humanistic and scientific messages to his people - the Filipino people. Poch Suzara

Rizal’s biographer – Leon M. Guerrero, clearly notes that Rizal returned to the Church of his youth in extremes of self-abasement, frenziedly in childlike fashion, spending the remaining hours of earning indulgences from purgatory by confessing four times, and obsequiously attending to Fr. Balaguer and Villaclara’s wishes. In brief, according to this biographer, Rizal died as a timid coward. Indeed, according to this official government commissioned biographer, our national hero in the end turned out to be a turncoat. But then again, four years before his death, Rizal in 1882 wrote a letter to Gregorio Aglipay: “In all parts of the world where an honest man tries to achieve reform he is crucified on Golgotha. Christ had nowhere to lay his head, when Pilate governed. It is probable that I will be executed – then they will try to bring along my moral death by covering my memory with slander.” Poch Suzara

The shame in Rizal’s life is not the retraction of his deeds, writings or personal conduct. Such retraction was only a frailocratic figment of the impoverished priestly imagination. The real shame comes from the Filipino historians and other Catholic writers who believed not in Rizal’s power of intellect, but believed instead his enemies – the friars – who invented sacred lies about this great man. Via the control of the system of education in the Philippines, these friars have and still are blocking, expediently and consistently, Rizal’s qualified and legitimate entry into the world stage as one of mankind’s greatest thinkers. But then again how can the world learn of Rizal’s intellectual power if the Filipinos themselves know so little of the health and wealth of this great 19th century Filipino scientists and thinker and writer? Poch Suzara

Rizal was a product of Ateneo and Santo Thomas; yet both Catholic universities continue to assassinate the character of this great humanist thinker. Rizal had learned on his own initiative, outside academic wall, how to think deeply and how to embrace intellectual honesty valiantly. Indeed, to this day, all Catholic universities still teach that during his last day on this earth, just hours before he was executed for his principles, noble values, and rational beliefs, Rizal retracted and went back to embrace the Catholic Church and its teachings. What brazen lies! It is no less than a tall story. A cheap shot at a great man. Otherwise, after his death, he should have been given a Catholic burial and his bodily remains not just put inside an old sack and thrown in the Paco Cemetery in the corner where heretics are stashed away like dead animals. Poch Suzara

Jose Rizal pointed out that evolution in education, ( not reliance on foreign investments ), is the best hope of the nation to enjoy the highest standard of living and thinking. The system of education for the Filipino must be based on science and technology, and not on prayers and theology. Indeed, according to Rizal, a free nation can rise no higher than the standard of beliefs and values set in its schools, colleges, and universities. In there hope for the Philippines? Yes, there is! But first its system of education must be radically revamped. No more silly prayers to support a stupid theology. Only more science and more technology via more scientific method of thinking. Poch Suzara

Rizal struggled not only against Spanish authority, but against superstition. He fought not in the battlefield, but in the minds of men and in the hearts of women. Rizal was Asia’s first scientific-humanist thinker put to death a century ago by musketry as imposed by theocracy. The same Catholic theocracy today that is keeping the Filipino youth via education to live in guilt and to fear new and fresh ideas; indeed, to keep away from the free market of ideas, and to hate, at the same time, the freethinkers, especially the books written by freethinkers. “Blotting out their brains,” Rizal wrote, “in faith, prayers, masses, novenas, superimposed these onto native superstition.” Poch Suzara

After a hundred years, how influential has Jose Rizal been on the Filipino as a people? Millions today would readily give credence by listening to the words of a Mike Velarde of El Shaddai preaching pastoral nonsense derived from the bible – a book written not by Filipinos but by foreigners. Only a handful of scholars would care to read and understand the real Rizal and carry out his principles and ideals for the achievement of pride, dignity, intellectual and scientific honesty for the Filipino as a nation. And to think, the Jews, the Chosen People of God, never considered the bible as a holy book at any time in their history. In fact, the Jews live in a Jewish State. They do not live in a Christian country – the land where Jesus Christ was presumably born. Poch Suzara

Ninoy Aquino said: “The Filipino is worth dying for.” Well, Ninoy is a hero today. Filipinos killed him. Imagine Jose Rizal having said too: “The Catholics are worth dying for.” Rizal today would be a saint. The Catholics had him killed. And this is exactly how sick we all are today as the Sick Man of Asia. Thanks to Filipino catholic theologians, like Father Jose S. Arcilla, S.J., and his gang who have not ceased writing brazen lies about Jose Rizal’s soul saved in heaven. What a crock of religious lies generating hypocrisy! Poch Suzara

Rizal, indeed, was a great thinker. He clearly saw in his day what we vaguely see around us today: religion and diseases flourishing hand in hand under ignorance, filth, hate, and poverty. What irked the friars against Rizal was his refusal to continue to believe in Christianity; for, he learned to be on the side of humanity. For my part, if there’s life after death, it’s great thinkers like Rizal that I should wish to be with. Otherwise, if I will just find myself in the company of Filipino theologians, or among the Opus Dei gang – the kind of people who had Rizal put to death, please Lord spare me the sacred horror. I would rather be forever in hell. Poch Suzara

The Spanish Catholic friars arrived in the Philippines bringing with them the holy bible and Christianity. They stole our land. Crushed our sense of human dignity and self-respect. And now via the schools, colleges, and universities that they own and control, the Catholic Church teaches us to be always grateful to the Lord for having saved us.
In the meantime, if the Spanish friars had only introduced the concept of humanism instead of establishing in the Philippines religious barbarism and other forms of supernaturalism, Filipino priests like Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora need not have been garroted to death for wanting reforms within the Catholic Church in their time. Moreover, great thinkers like Jose Rizal need not have been arrested, incarcerated, and executed by Catholic firing squad for writing the NOLI and FILI - 2 books that could have brought enlightenment to the Filipino minds and hearts to earn national pride as a people and Asian dignity as a nation. Poch Suzara

Rizal never said or wrote: “It was my pride that ruined me.” Those words were put into the mouth of Rizal by his official prize-winning biographer Leon Maria Guerrero who believed, as a Catholic, the Rizal retraction story as concocted by the sciolistic friars. Moreover, Rizal never “got rid of his political appetite, moral perplexities, and intellectual pride.” On the contrary, Rizal chose to die proudly. After the superstitious friars stripped him of his dignity, it was no longer possible for Rizal to go on living as a decent man and as a thinking Filipino. Poch Suzara

What kind of men needed to see Rizal dead, discarded and forgotten? Were they men of reason, logic, science or philosophy? Were they avid readers, critical thinkers, or scientific investigators? Were they men at home with civilized humanity? No! On the contrary, Rizal’s enemies were the friends of blind faith: - the superstitious primitives, the sanctimonious hypocrites, and those indeed who were selfish, greedy, corrupt, stupid, and insane. Rizal’s enemies of a hundred years ago, are still the same enemies we have today. They are the ones insisting that it makes no difference whether Rizal retracted from his religious, political and philosophical principles or not. What a silly conclusion to bestow upon the greatest of Filipino seminal thinker who died for the liberation of the Filipino mind and heart, and indeed, for all mankind. Shame on you cowards - the so-called “Knights of Rizal.” Poch Suzara

A great Filipino is one who has had the intellect and the courage to put more sense where the theologians and the politicians in cahoots together have put only nonsense making for our sick society. In the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, only one rare Filipino had the courage and the intellect to stand up against great odds to be a great Filipino - Jose Rizal - a truth-seeker, a scientist, and a humanist. To keep the Filipino frightened of the truth, however, Rizal was publicly executed by those in church authority - the ecclesiastical liars gifted with a free will from divinity. Poch Suzara

In his official biography of Rizal, Guerrero disclosed that the Spanish Catholic friars made a firm offer to Rizal the amount of 100,000 pesos and a chair to teach philosophy at the University of Santo Thomas on the condition that he signed the retraction document. It has been reported by the friars that Rizal did sign his retraction papers. And yet, after Rizal was shot to death at the Luneta by a firing squad, not even a mass in church was said for Rizal who died as a penitent Catholic. In fact, Rizal was not even given a proper Catholic burial. His remains were just thrown in a little corner in Paco cemetery where heretics and infidels were buried. The trouble with Guerrero as the Rizal biographer, he was more interested in defending the business of the Catholic Church and its teachings than defending truthfully the subject of his biography – Jose Rizal and his teachings. As a great admirer, since Rizal never threatened me with eternal hellfire if I did not believe or spread any of his words, in the fight between Rizal and the Catholic Church, I will always be on the side of Rizal. Never will I abandon such a great man even if it means losing my stupid soul to end up in a stupid hell as managed by the stupid devil in cahoots with a stupid Supreme Being. Poch Suzara

After six months of stay, he left for Europe for the second time on February 3,1888 to pursue the task he had set for himself. His brief stay enabled him to judge the effect of his Noli Me Tangere. He knew he was a marked man for writing the book which not only shook the Spanish rule, but precisely rattled more the foundation of authority in the Philippines - the Catholic church and its teachings.The military trial of Rizal was not meant to administer justice throughout the land. It was done purposely to execute him in public so that the Filipinos would be frightened to death and subsequently to stop dreaming of freedom under free and humanistic thought. Thus, when the so-called Spanish rule was thrown out with the interference of the US naval forces, what stayed behind to continue controlling Filipino minds and dominating Filipino hearts was the Catholic Church. Via Catholic schools, colleges, and universities – Catholic teachings prevailed in the Philippines. Consider the average Filipino in this 21st century. He is more conversant about the fantastic life and times of Jesus Christ than he knows anything about the realistic life and times of Jose Rizal. And to think Jose Rizal was born in the Philippines - a Christian country. Jesus Christ was born, if at all, in Israel that is today not even a Christian country. It is a Jewish State. Catholic friars claimed that before he was executed Rizal retracted and asked for the forgiveness of his sin against God and for the pardon of his crime against the Filipino people. These developments, however, are based upon religious hogwash. The Rizal retraction scandal was concocted by the religious cowards. Just as much as the religious cowards of our day – the Knights of Rizal - continue to be afraid to stand up to defend Rizal’s great intellectual capacity as a rare Filipino gifted with the capacity not only to think but also to die with self-respect and dignity. Poch Suzara

India had Mahatma Gandhi. France had Voltaire. Germany had Nietzsche. Austria had Freud. China had Sun Yet Sen. England had Bertrand Russell. Italy had Galileo and Bruno. America had Tom Paine and Ingersoll. Cuba had Jose Marti and Fidel Castro. These were some of the great men who, with courage and intellect, put more sense into the minds of men and the hearts of women where nature has put only insane horrors.
We could have had our own Jose Rizal. The greatest and rarest Filipino this country has ever produced. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church cut him down to size. Millions of Filipinos still have no inkling as to why Jose Rizal was one of mankind’s greatest heroes. Indeed, college professors, historians, biographers, newspaper editors, including his own descendants have been frightened by the Catholic Church authority to believe that Rizal was executed while repentant of his sins against God and regretful of his crimes against his own people. What brazen lies to tell about the greatest Filipino thinker who ever lived. The greatest Filipino who died sober and not drunk with sacred lies.
In the meantime, pontifical fear and ecclesiastical ignorance are the recycled garbage dished out in our schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries. Especially those owned and managed by the Catholic Church and other religious organizations in the Philippines. Consider the average Filipino in this 21st century: he is more comfortable with childish prayer under a theology than he is at home with science and philosophy for the sake of our sense of humanity enjoying freedom and democracy under a sane and a healthy society.
Indeed, science is what we know. Philosophy is what we do not know. Religion is pretending to know what we not know. In this past centuries, because Jose Rizal was more at home with the nature of science, philosophy, and the evils of religion, he was locally the pride of the Malay race; but today great men in the same intellectual level of a Jose Rizal globally is the pride of the human race. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

“Great spirits have always found opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form.” Indeed, Einstein had in his mind men like Jose Rizal when he wrote: “It keeps repeating itself in this world, so fine and honest: The parson alarms the populace, the genius is executed.” Poch Suzara

A man who has once perceived, however, temporarily and however briefly, what makes greatness of spirit, can no longer be happy if he allows himself to be petty, self-seeking, troubled by trivial misfortunes, dreading what fate may have in store for him. A man capable of greatness of spirit will open wide the windows of his mind, letting the winds blow freely upon it from every portion of the universe. He will see himself and life and the world as truly as our human limitations will permit; realizing the brevity and minuteness of human life, he will realize also that in individual minds is concentrated whatever of value the known universe contains. And he will see that the man whose mind mirrors the world becomes in a sense as great as the world, In emancipation from the fears that beset the slave of circumstance he will experience a profound joy, and through all the vicissitudes of his outward life he will remain in the depths of being a happy man. Poch Suzara

“As a consequence of the enormous social and technological changes of the last few centuries, the world is not working well. We do not live in traditional and static societies. But our governments, in resisting change, act as if we did. Unless we destroy ourselves utterly, the future belongs to those societies that while not ignoring the reptilian and mammalian parts of our being, enable the characteristically human components of our nature to flourish; to those societies that encourage diversity rather than conformity; to those societies willing to invest resources in a variety of social, political, economic and cultural experiments, and prepared to sacrificed short-term advantage for long-term benefit; to those societies that treat new ideas as delicate, fragile and immensely valuable pathways to the future.” Poch Suzara

“We are the final judges of what is good, just as we remain the final judges of what is logical. And on neither front has our conversation with one another reached an end. There need to be no scheme of rewards and punishments transcending this life to justify our moral intuitions or to render them effective in guiding our behavior in the world. The only angels we need to invoke are those of our better nature: reason, honesty, and love. The only demons we must fear are those that lurk inside every human mind: ignorance, hatred, greed, and faith, which is surely the devil\s masterpiece.” Poch Suzara

Fraud, illusion, trickery, hallucination, honest mistake or outright lies – the combination adds up to such a probable alternative that I shall always doubt casual observations or second hand stories that seem to suggest the catastrophic overthrow of existing science. Existing science will undoubtedly be overthrown; not, however, by casual anecdotes or performances on television, (or by public execution of scientists like Rizal) but by rigorous research, repeated, dissected and repeated again.” Poch Suzara

Wherever you are, I have the highest respect for you as a man, and I have the deepest love for you as a Filipino. In this connection, I shall continue, to the end of my days, to struggle against those who had you, publicly, put to death. They are still existing, alive and kicking doing more harm, more damage, than ever. Indeed, in this 21st century, your enemies are still in control of our schools, colleges, and universities twisting the mind of the Filipino to remain spiritually poor as a people, and still distorting the heart of the Philippines to remain morally bankrupt as a nation! Sir: in the God-forsaken country, you are about the one and only Filipino, with dignity and self-respect, worthy to be called Filipino! The rest are trying only to save themselves the trouble of having to think. As the Sick Man of Asia, we only love to believe. Thus, instead of appeals to principles and logic and philosophy, our public spirit is only aroused by personalities and celebrities. Indeed, instead of being the mature masters of our ideals and principles as a society, we only continue to be the childish victims of a foreign Jewish deity. Poch Suzara

How do we summarize it? The poem was completed on Dec. 29, 1896 hours before he was executed. He was able to smuggle out the finished poem. He placed it inside a lamp and gave to his visitors, among whom was his sister and whispered to her: “look inside. There is something inside it.” He made an extra copy by putting it inside his shoe for insurance purpose.The Ultimo Adios was Rizal’s last poetic defiance against those who continue to be childish believers instead of being intelligent thinkers. The Ultimo Adios is a strong message to the Filipino as a people: – to begin to think that we all share only one common enemy together. No, not the Spaniards or the Americans or the Japanese, or what have you, etc. But our enemy is stupid religion. Indeed, religion that encourages individual stupidity that culminates into social insanity. Poch Suzara

Saturday, February 17, 2007

My great friend from New York wrote: Dear Poch: I think we should forget not only this generation of Filipinos but let us try forgetting a total of five generations. That's a period of more than 100 years. You and I won't be around by then. We will have long turned to dust! MarMy response to Mar: I agree with you 100 per cent. Dust we are and unto dust we shall return. But we need not live as a farce just because we will end as a fertilizer. Let us, on the contrary, be involved and be like those rare thinking individuals who, throughout history, have had the courage to put sanity into this world where nature has only put insanity. In his NEW HOPES FOR A CHANGING WORLD, Bertrand Russell said it better: “Those who feel nobly, even if in their day they live obscurely, need not fear that they will have lived in vain. Something radiates from their lives, some light that shows the way to their friends, their neighbors, perhaps to long and future ages. I find many men nowadays oppressed with the feeling that in the vastness of modern societies there is nothing of importance that the individual can do. This is a mistake. The individual, if he is filled with love of mankind, with breadth of vision, with courage and with endurance, can do a great deal.” Poch Suzara

Friday, February 16, 2007

There are only three kinds of Filipinos in the Philippines: Those who upgrade humanity; and, those who degrade humanity. And the rest who could not care less as nothing matters to them except worshipping divinity. Poch Suzara

Wrote a great article in the Manila Standard Today on how we are as a nation of Idiots with idiot candidates and idiot voters. Far more disastrous, however, than we are a nation of idiots, we are, indeed, a nation of sinners and criminals. Our schools, colleges, and universities are places where they teach us to believe that there exists a higher power called “God” who will not only provide from out there, but will also forgive us of our idiotic sins and idiotic crimes down here. No doubt, ours is an idiotic system of education. But blaming our officials and voters for what is idiotic in the Philippine government will not do. After all these Filipinos are among the prestigious products of La Salle, Ateneo, University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Miriam college, Assumption college, Lyceum.Letran, San Beda, Mapua, Sta. Escolastica, Santa Teresa, Don Bosco, etc. Not to mention products too of Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and our public school system. As for me personally, if there is anything I am eternally proud as a Filipino, it was my great success at having engineered my own expulsion out of high school in De La Salle University some 50 years ago. It certainly opened the greatest opportunity for me to acquire genuine learning. I hit my strides by enrolling in the greatest of all universities: it is but a collection of books – a library of my own. Happily, I am still a faithful and an active student even in my old age. Learning, indeed, is a never-ending adventure. Poch Suzara

According to TIME, “There is enough light for those who want to believe, and enough darkness for those who do not want.” I ask: What good is God’s existence if he does not expose himself by creating more and heavier light into this world of darkness? What good is a hidden God where, in darkness, he stays hidden? Poch Suzara

I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Exodus 3:6, Mark 12:26, Luke 20:37. There is nothing written in the same holy bible where God also admits: I am the God of Juan de la Cruz, the God of Juan de la Tamad, or the God of Juan de la Sipul? Again: I am God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Matt. 22:32I ask: What have we living Filipinos got anything to do with the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? To think these bible characters were all born in some Jewish land, and have been long dead and buried in a foreign country since thousands of years ago. Poch Suzara

The Son of God Jesus, crucified on the cross, cried out: “Father, forgive them; for they know now what they do.” Luke 23:33Well, if the Son of God Jesus clearly admitted that the people know not what they do, isn’t it rather childish to believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God? Poch Suzara

“…We cannot solve all of the problems of the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of all that is that is to destroy love. And this happens when we tell people to practice contraception.” This is really another pontifical way of saying that nothing pleases God more than to see poor women here and poor children there and the propagation of poverty spreading everywhere. After all, Mother Teresa loved not only poor people here and there but loved even more poverty everywhere. Poch Suzara

wrote: “Somebody has remarked that if we offend God, God will forgive us if we repent. If we hurt our fellow humans, they will forgive us if we apologize. But if we destroy the Earth, it will not forgive us even if we ask for its forgiveness.” Bishop Bacani ignores the biblical teachings of Christianity with its vested interests in poverty and misery: The bible clearly declares: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John 2:15

wrote: “Conscience has rights because it has duties.” Indeed, it has: duties not to religious authority, not even to any other outside forces, but duties only to one’s self as a self-respecting man. Conscience should and must decide for itself what is good or evil. Revelation does not count. Revelation exposed “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Unfortunately, it has failed to reveal why such a silly tree had been created and planted by God to begin with! In the second place, no one knows where that tree is to be found anywhere in the world today.In the meantime, Proverbs 28:26 states: “he who trusts in his own mind is a fool; but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” Is it any wonder that the faithful always end up walking mindless, if not always thoughtless as believers of bible wisdom? Poch Suzara

“Modern man . . . has long believed that right and wrong were only differences in point of view, but now when evil works itself out in practice he is paralyzed to do anything against it.”I ask Archbishop Sheen: what about your own church from ancient days to modern times during these past 2,000 years? What exactly has your church done to diminish, nay, eliminate the evils in this world? What has happened to the power of God almighty always behind the power of your church? Poch Suzara

Wrote: “It is the mark of perfection to recognize one’s imperfections.” This is childish dishonesty with one’s self as far as I am concerned. I’d rather embrace Bertrand Russell’s sense of truthfulness: “No one is perfect and we should not be bothered by the fact that we are not.” Poch Suzara

Wrote in the Manila Standard Today: “There is no better expression of love than to help feed the hunger.”Alvin, I totally disagree. There is no better expression of love than that of informing as well as encouraging would be mothers and fathers to seriously practice family planning and birth control. In this way, there will be less sick and hungry people to feed in our already sick and hungry society. Moreover, as we over-populate, nature will destroy us off with famine, disease, and environmental destruction. It is already a reality in so many parts of the fragile world. The alternative is family planning and birth control. In the meantime, every cause is a lost cause without population control. Poch Suzara

Wrote in the Manila Standard Today: “We all admire Pacquiao for his boxing skills. But I am afraid he’ll be a fish out of the water in Congress. What is pathetic about it is that he could win and kiss his boxing career goodbye. What happens if somebody in Congress challenges him to a debate? Will Pacman box him? Why can’t he just settle with the boxing career?What happens, you asked, if somebody in Congress challenges Pacquiao to a debate? Well, what happens I ask, when Pacquiao challenges Congressmen to kneel down and make the sign of the cross before he starts punching everybody on the Congressional ring? Poch Suzara

Wrote: “The trouble when people stop believing in God is not that they thereafter believe in nothing, it is that they thereafter believe in anything.”I ask G.K. Chesterton: What happens when God stops believing in God? After all, God made it very clear in his first command: Thou shall have no other gods before me?” For Christ’s sake, who created those other gods? Where in hell do they come from? Poch Suzara

If Jesus performed feats of healing which were credited to him, is it not strange that during the days of his trial, or on his day of execution there was not one person who appeared and to protest because of his marvelous experience of being dead and resurrected back to life and restored back to health? But then again even Jesus himself, dead on the cross, came back to life. I ask: Would a man who returned from the tomb fail to visit his mother? Only an extremely hard and thoughtless man could neglect his grieving mother. Also, how come there was no appearance to the idiots who had crucified him on the cross? Poch Suzara

“The psychoanalysis of individual human beings, however, teaches us with quite special insistence that the god of each of them is formed in the likeness of his father, that his personal relation to God depends on his relation to his father in the flesh and oscillates and changes along with that relation, and that at bottom God is nothing other than an exalted father.”Gee, Mr. Freud, I regret to disagree with you. Years before I had a great opportunity to get know, understand, and love my father, my maternal grandfather, and my paternal grandfather – God had them expunged dead out of my life. Happily, however, my mother is still very much alive. She is 94 years old. I am taking care of her. A devout Catholic that she is and despite her devotion to God all these past years, I love her more than I care to love Mary, the Mother of God, not to mention all the saints of God whom I have never met. And to think that if the supernatural God and supernatural Devil have been in existence for more than 70 million years and we humans on the average exist only for some measly 70 years, why should we care about pleasing, or, as the case may be, care about displeasing supernatural beings out there? Poch Suzara

Only a fool says there is no God. Why then did God create fools? Over a billion of them live in China. Perhaps, not all Chinese are atheists. But the Chinese have been irreligious since the 11th century. They do not believe that God is a Christian in general; or, that God is a Catholic in particular. Oh, the Chinese may not merit eternal salvation in heaven. At the rate, however, they are being created in the image and likeness of God (one out of every five people in this world today is a Chinaman) they will surely inherit the earth. Poch Suzara

In his book: Has Science got Rid of God? Blanchard writes: “Atheism’s creed is clear and cruel: we began as a fluke, we live as a farce, and we end as a fertilizer.”Obviously, like millions of Christians throughout the world, John Blanchard too is shamelessly ignorant of bible contents. Indeed, the creed of theism is just as clear and just as cruel too: “ For dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return.” The difference between an atheist and a theist is that we atheists do not believe in childish fairy tales. You theists believe that there is a God out there who will reward you for being a believer or will punish you for being an unbeliever. We atheists have no need for either rewards or punishments to make sense of our beliefs or, for that matter - disbeliefs. Poch Suzara

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

“There are no idiot candidates where there are no idiot voters.” Antonio C. Abaya As a matter of deeper fact, if our system of education were purely based upon the scientific revolution of the mind, and not upon the apostolic revelation of the idiotic soul - our politicians need not arrive at high government office by having achieved a reputation in mediocrity. In the meantime, our democracy is shallow, meaningless, and thoughtless since the majority of our people live in misery and in poverty. And to think that far more evil than the idiot candidates and the idiot voters are the idiot religious so-called leaders. They still preach that poor Filipinos must and should continue to multiply and replenish for themselves more misery and poverty in this God-forsaken only Christian country in Asia. Poch Suzara

The faith that does not doubt can only be the faith of the college educated men and women who are not the masters but the childish victims of the priesthood industry. Indeed, the faith that does not doubt can only thrive among those who were twisted emotionally, distorted mentally, impoverished spiritually, bankrupted morally, fooled politically, sickened religiously, and made insane socially. Poch Suzara

Saturday, February 03, 2007

The Internal Revenue Service says Americans took tax exemptions for $88 BILLION in religious donations in 2004. Imagine that kind of donation in just 10 years. It would amount to $880 BILLION or almost a TRILLION DOLLARS. Imagine further that money, donated not to corrupt priests, greedy ministers, insane evangelists, and other religious charlatans, but donated to the pool of the Social Security system. Each and every one of SSS recipient could receive an average of $2,000 a month rather the measly $500 a month; not to mention even the hard working illegal aliens could receive social security as well upon retirement.I wish we poor Americans would stop carping about the illegal aliens working hard to earn a living and trying to stay alive in America. After all, the only legal Americans are the Mexicans who owned the State of California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and Texas in the past. And the Native Indians who owned the whole of the United States Continent until the White Race arrived. Indeed, they arrived greedy, selfish, stupid, and insane taking the land away from the native Indians and the Mexicans with the help of war, death, destruction and indeed with the inspiration from Christian values and beliefs. Poch Suzara

Friday, February 02, 2007

The Filipino is good by nature. No doubt, there exist ills and evils in the Filipino social and political affairs. Such horrors, however, are to due to corrupt institutions such as schools, colleges, and universities as inspired by the rotten teachings of the Church. Such respectable institutions have made the Filipino good; specially good for the next life, if any; unfortunately, for this life in this country, good for nothing. Look at how we Filipinos are all loving of God up there by hating one another down here! Poch Suzara

Imagine our great grandparents then praying daily to God to give us this day our daily bread and to lead us not into temptation. Imagine our great grandchildren will also be praying to God to give us this day our daily bread and to lead us not into temptation. That is hardly civilized progress in human affairs. Poch Suzara

Say that it would take more than 20 years of study to discover if we Filipinos were actually impoverished by a damaged culture. As a high-school expelled student, however, I say it should only take less than 20 days. Indeed, just visit the toilets facilities in any of our schools and universities, including our government buildings. One can easily deduce that Filipino culture has gone down the drain already severely damaged in this only Christian country in Asia today.
In the meantime, take heed of the great Filipino historian Teodoro A. Agoncillo. He bravely wrote: “Self-deception is the worst tragedy of the Filipino as a people.” Poch Suzara

“Without the development of the whole society, economic growth cannot be possible.” Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam As a matter of fact, without the development of the whole human personality, it is not possible to create a sane and a healthy society. Poch Suzara

Faith is not wanting to know what is true. For my part, I would rather have more reason than have faith in lies. I want knowledge. I do not want faith. I reject the values of faith especially as it elevates thoughtlessness into sacred doctrines. Poch Suzara

A great Filipino is one who has had the intellect and the courage to put beauty where the theologians and the politicians in cahoots together have only put nonsense for our sick society. In the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, only one rare Filipino had the courage and the intellect to stand up to be a great Filipino - Jose Rizal - a truth-seeker, a scientist, and a humanist. In order to keep the Filipino frightened of knowledge and wisdom, Rizal was executed in public by the Authority of the Catholic Church. Indeed, the same church that has vested interests in human misery and poverty in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

The truth hurts but lies can be far more damaging. Lies, especially ecclesiastical lies, - can last a thousand years. Take a good look at the priestly liars who, for centuries, with sacred lies have successfully kept the Filipino spiritually poor as a people and morally bankrupt as a nation! Poch Suzara

After six months of stay, he left for Europe for the second time on February 3,1888 to pursue the task he had set for himself. His brief stay enabled him to judge the effect of his Noli Me Tangere. He knew he was a marked man for writing the book which not only shook the Spanish rule, but precisely rattled more the foundation of authority in the Philippines - the Catholic church and its teachings.The military trial of Rizal was not meant to administer justice throughout the land. It was done purposely to execute him in public so that the Filipinos would be frightened to death and subsequently to stop dreaming of freedom under free thought. Thus, when the so-called Spanish rule was thrown out with the interference of the US naval forces, what stayed behind to continue controlling Filipino minds and dominating Filipino hearts was the Catholic Church. Via Catholic schools, colleges, and universities – Catholic teachings prevailed in the Philippines. Consider the average Filipino in this 21st century. He is more conversant about the fantastic life and times of Jesus Christ than he knows anything about the realistic life and times of Jose Rizal. And to think Jose Rizal was born in the Philippines - a Christian country. Jesus Christ was born, if at all, in Israel that is today not even a Christian country. It is a Jewish State. Catholic friars claimed that before he was executed Rizal retracted and asked for the forgiveness of his sin against God and for the pardon of his crime against the Filipino people. These developments, however, are based upon religious hogwash. The Rizal retraction scandal was concocted by the religious cowards. Just as much as the religious cowards of our day – the Knights of Rizal - continue to be afraid to stand up to defend Rizal’s great intellectual capacity as a rare Filipino gifted with the capacity not only to think but even to die for a just and a decent cause. Poch Suzara

A gifted blind-mute-deaf woman, Helen Keller was also a great intellectual with extraordinary social vision. She said: “Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature. . . Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Indeed, our planet earth is a speck of dust in this universe. It is most likely that we human beings are alone and insecure and doomed. There is no other way to meet life but only with courage especially in the pursuit of our ideals as inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Poch Suzara

When the wife fears her husband because he is a psycho-ceramic; or worse, when the husband fears his wife because she is a crackpot – that to me is a sick marriage. I should know. I once experienced a sick marriage myself. My wife was always scolding me for something or another. Instead of correcting and learning from our mistakes, shortcomings, and imperfections, she would rather blame my parents, my sisters, in-laws and friends for what was sick about our marriage. I was on the verge of suicide. I decided, instead, to save my life. I abandoned her because I thought going back to my first and only real love – reading books - was a healthier kind of marriage for me than being married to an utterly thoughtless woman who loved her police dogs more than she loved me. Do I ever feel guilty for having deserted my wife and children? Hardly. The constant message my wife always made me understand then was that our children will be raised and educated as good and faithful Christians. And that being a non-believer, even if I am the father of my children, I shall have no say whatsoever on the issue. Well, Jesus Himself recommended deserting one’s family: “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” Matthew 19:29. For the sake of my personal sanity, however, I abandoned my faith precisely due to the teaching of Jesus as written in the Bible. Jesus said, and never will I ever agree with him that: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. “Luke 14:26. Poch Suzara

Catholic teachings say that true freedom is not choosing our way, but yielding to God’s way. In other words, free will is not choosing our way, but yielding to divinity via papal authority. Catholics may have the free will to choose leaders, but not parents. Indeed, Catholics with free will have yet to figure what got them to be Catholics to begin with. Of course, Catholics believe in free will. They have to. They have no choice. With free will to choose, however, try getting any younger, or try not getting any older. Golly, we never even had the free will to choose to arrive into this world born not naked, how may we have the free will to choose to leave this world one day naked as well? We were cast into this world by accident of time and place; and we shall leave this world one day against our will. Free will is bunk. Is free will truly God’s greatest gift to men? Take a good look at those morons gifted with a free will, and created in the image and likeness of God. Those morons who successfully got Jesus, the Son of God, crucified on the cross! And to think that this is the same Jesus, while crucified on the cross, cried out” “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Poch Suzara

Why should we care for our spouses and children, our friends and relatives and neighbors, and indeed the whole of mankind specially senior citizens? After all, our stupid religion has deeply impressed upon our minds and hearts to love only God up there even if it means social insecurity under hate for each other down here? Poch Suzara

After all these past precious decades of threats of war and real wars against each other, all that wasted resources destroying each other, it has finally turned out that both Communism and Capitalism are not enemies. In fact, they both function very well together. Look at the wealth, power, and glory of China today enjoying both Communism and Capitalism as partners in peace and growth and productivity together. The credit goes to the Chinese – a great people. Bertrand Russell said it better some 50 years ago: “I have come to realize that the white race isn’t as important as I used to think it was. If Europe and America kill themselves off in war it will not necessarily mean the destruction of the human species, nor even an end to civilization. There will still be a considerable number of Chinese left; and in many ways China is the greatest country I have ever seen. It is not only the greatest numerically and the greatest culturally, but it seems to me the greatest intellectually. I know of no other civilization where there is so much open-mindedness, such realism, such willingness to face the facts as they are, instead of trying to distort them into a particular pattern.” Poch Suzara

In his recent book - The Lexus and the Olive Tree, author Mr. Friedman wrote: “Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire with his own global network, declared war on the United States in the late 1990s, and the US Air Force retaliated with a cruise missile attack on him (where he resided in Afghanistan) as though he were another nation-state. Think about it. The United States fired 75 cruise missiles, at $1 million dollars apiece, at a person! That was a superpower against a Super-empowered angry man.” What Mr. Friedman neglected to articulate, however, is how the US economy is based mostly on war production materials and at global activities creating enemies of all sorts to facilitate the use of US made weapons even if drains the national wealth or the USA allying herself with right-wing tyrannies overseas. Poch Suzara

The human heart is more prone to hate than to love. That is why bullets, guns, and bomb makers have been the most profitable of industries. Especially in the United States of America. In fact, the economy of the USA has been and still is based not upon a world at peace with goodwill to all men, but upon foreign countries at war or preparing for war against each other. Thus, the core of the US foreign policy has more to do with military greed. It has virtually nothing to do with human need.
In the meantime, the whole world today is in desperate need to wage a battle against ignorance. It does not need to wage a war against terrorism. Terrorism is just one product of ignorance as inspired by stupid religion. Poch Suzara

Our entire world is one planet so small in that 1,000,000 planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun, Indeed, we are living on a speck of dust in a galaxy that contains 400 billion suns, and is itself only one of the several billion galaxies. According to science, however, our sun will grow cold, and life on this earth will come to an end. The universe, however, will continue to exist while utterly indifferent to human destiny. Poch Suzara

One of the hardest things to achieve in life: throw off childhood impressions out the window. Early impressions have an immensely stronger hold upon us than those acquired in the later years. Thus, a child grows up to be a Catholic or a Jew or a Muslim because of nursery environment and early teachings. Sometimes, even a biologist devoted to the science of biology believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. As a child, said biologist had been frightened to believe that God had a virgin for a Mother. Poch Suzara

The power of philosophy lies not in the agreement, but in the disagreement among the philosophers. What is even more powerful, however, are the daughters of philosophy – the sciences – each in their respective field of endeavor discovering more and more scientific knowledge for the philosophers to disagree or agree with. Poch Suzara

The pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of knowledge amount to the same thing. What is essential for the good, happy, and creative life is not deadly paralysis, but lively analysis. Bertrand Russell wrote it more gracefully: “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” Poch Suzara

It has been two thousand years since Jesus died on the cross to destroy the devil. Yet today millions of Christians still believe that their greatest enemy is not those lively little creatures found under a microscope, but the silly devil and his deadly influence found in their daily horoscope. Obviously, dying on the cross was a barbaric way to remedy social problems. It has not work in the past. Never will in the future. Poch Suzara

Jesus, the Son of God, was born without sin. And yet John, the Baptist, the religious moron that he was, baptized Jesus to cleanse his presumably blackened soul due to the mess called original sin. Poch Suzara

My friends since childhood days have turned out to be not friends at all. They have never met Jesus personally. And yet in our old age my friends are peeved at me because they expect me to be more of a friend to Jesus than be a real friend to them. Well, I don’t know Jesus. I never met Jesus. Jesus and I never grew up together laughing, playing, studying, misbehaving, traveling, and chasing after girls together? In fact, Jesus was never here or there or everywhere with me at any time or place during my trials and tribulations! Why should I be a friend to some one who is not only a Jewish ancient mystery, but who was also never a living flesh and blood personality to me? Poch Suzara

Do you believe in God? It is a meaningless question. What is more meaningful to ask, however, is whether God (if he exist) believes in you. After all, God has the kingdom, the power, and the glory. For my part, as I have nothing why should God give a hoot whether I believe in him or not? Since the time of Jesus, more than ONE HUNDRED BILLION people have already lived and died on this earth. That God is so worried about the salvation of souls has got to be a sick joke concocted by the corrupt priesthood industry. Really, if God cares for souls, why create them to be in danger on this earth? Why not create souls happy in heaven? Or, better yet, why bother to create silly little souls to begin with? Poch Suzara

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by the minorities.” Lord Acton In the Philippines, however, despite the more than one million security guards from licensed private security agencies guarding our banks, government buildings, piers and airports, hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, restaurants, plush villages, condominium buildings, shopping malls, and indeed guarding even our churches and cathedrals, nobody but nobody enjoys security in our sick society. One thing, however, stands out very clear. We have no need of security guards to guard our public libraries since there aren’t any existing that is worth visiting anywhere in the Philippines. Never mind guarding the existence of Science Museums throughout our country. No such creatures exist in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Imagine the harm that has come from ignorant religion. On the other hand, think of how much help has come from human intelligence, kindness, courage, and perseverance. Indeed, freedom of religion is important, but what is even far more important is freedom from religion. We could never achieve the full potential as a human being if we remain not only religiously ignorant, but also remain ignorant religiously. Poch Suzara